Beyond providing valuable support services for students, the University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) is responsible for defending students’ rights through lobbying, advocacy and activism. The Students’ Union pushes for legislation or programs that aim to improve students’ lives. Examples being: affordable housing, lower tuition, student tax credits and job creation, among others. With the goal of improving students’ experiences, the Students’ Union works with governments and other organizations to provide students with affordable, quality education while also holding those organizations accountable for actions deemed detrimental to students.

URSU is committed to the following mandates:

Continuing the tradition of aiding students while adapting to a changing world and remaining relevant in the educational careers of our members.

Listening to students and being their voice when dealing with policy makers and other entities that affect the lives of those seeking post-secondary education.

Finding the best ways to achieve outstanding education for students and keeping the expense of that education as low as possible.

Building a University community that is inclusive, diverse and exciting for all students on and off campus.

With over 15,000 members, the University of Regina Students’ Union reflects the diversity of its campus and of its students. The Students’ Union also supports, through funding and/or materials, student groups and support centres like the UR Pride Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, the Regina Public Interest Research Group (RPIRG), and the Women’s Centre, so that all students can get advice or educate themselves on issues they are passionate about. URSU is also Local 9 of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and was a founding member of the CFS as part of the Saskatchewan component.

We help keep students connected with everything happening on campus — seminars, cabarets, awareness campaigns and events run by our many student clubs and societies. URSU is essentially the place for all students to find a community on campus while sharing their own community with the rest of the world.

Whether it’s coordinating social events or creating social enlightenment, URSU provides what our members ask for — giving students the services they seek and the support they need. In that tradition, the Students’ Union has strived to maintain a sense of social responsibility while still allowing students to interact socially. The spirit of this goal can be summed up by the following quotes from past Student Union presidents:

“While the SRC has an important duty in coordinating social events on the campus, we also feel that it must do more than that. It must also act as a union. It must be totally concerned with all student problems and must be willing to act on all such problems affecting students.” This included, but was not limited to, “academic programs and how they are offered,” “financial difficulties facing students,” “conditions student face in their studies,” and “the guardianship and expansion of student rights.”

Simon de Jong, SRC President 1964

“If we can establish an atmosphere in which every individual feels a part of the university—an atmosphere in which the student can participate in and establish an identity in—an atmosphere in which the learning experience extends beyond the classroom and laboratory—then we have accomplished something important.”

Don Mitchell, SRC president 1967

—Excerpts taken from ‘New World Dawning: the Sixties at Regina Campus’